by Lucia Mutikani
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. economy added more jobs than expected in February, which should encourage the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates for longer, although wage growth showed signs of moderating.
The Labor Department reported on Friday 311,000 nonfarm payrolls created last month and revised January’s figure down to 504,000 from 517,000 originally reported.
Economists polled by Reuters predicted an average of 205,000 job creations in January, with estimates ranging between 78,000 and 325,000.
The average hourly wage rose 0.2%, after rising 0.3% in January, bringing its year-on-year increase to 4.6%, against 4.7% given by the Reuters consensus.
The unemployment rate rose to 3.6% in February while the consensus gave it 3.4%, the same as the previous month.
(Lucia Mutikani, French version Laetitia Volga, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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